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Macbeth Essay

Seattle Ruzek
Ms. Lonski
College Prep British Literature
26 November 2012
Understanding LimitsEveryone has different beliefs about the supernatural, and many believe that supernatural forces possess knowledge that can be obtainable by human beings. Although, those individuals fail to recognize that the supernatural powers might be too complex for their natural minds to fully comprehend. This has been a common theme in many classic story plots. For example, in Greek mythology the Fates possess supernatural powers and use them to overtake people’s lives as they wish. However, the idea of witches having strange powers was not only a story idea; it was a commonly accepted fact in the early 1600’s when Shakespeare wrote his tragedy, Macbeth. Macbeth’s inability to fully understand the witches’ illustrate that pursuing knowledge beyond mortal reach will only be detrimental. Macbeth, a once loyal and brave soldier, becomes a tyrant to Scotland and has a guilt-ridden, miserable life because of the knowledge he obtained from the witches.

Due to the witches, Macbeth ends his life as a tyrant. However, at the start of the play, he was known and respected by many, even, “The King happily received Macbeth” (Shakespeare 10). The base of Macbeth becoming the epitome of a tyrant lies in the witches’ first meeting with Macbeth. Their deceitful prediction that Macbeth “shalt be King hereafter,” sends his weak character into a rapid fatal decline (Shakespeare 14). At first, he thinks the idea of becoming king, “stands not within the prospect of belief,” but soon after, he begins thinking evil thoughts about murdering King Duncan, so he can replace him as King of Scotland (Shakespeare 19). After the murder of Duncan, Macbeth still does not feel his crown is safe, due to another prophecy from the witches. Macbeth fears still, above all else, his good friend Banquo, because the witches, “hailed him father to a line of kings; yet upon [Macbeths] head they placed a fruitless...

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For brave Macbeth well he deserved the name
Disdaining fortune, with his brandishes steel,
which smoke with bloody execution
Like valor’s minion carved out his passage
Till he faced the slave
Which nev’r shook hanks, nor bad far well to him
Till he...

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Choices are essential for human growth. It is necessary to make decisions based off of
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moral goodness of a decision, and that a person is rewarded or admonished for their decisions.
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representative of all that is sacred, is to become allied with exactly the opposite. He is doomed
to live in evil and to bring himself to hell’s gates. His choices reflect his inability to cope with his
immense grief after deciding to choose evil. Macbeth’s main flaw in his decisions is that he
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Macbeth was written by Shakespeare between 1603 and 1606, during James I’s reign. It is considered one of his darkest and most powerful tragedies. The story begins as one of a loyal and honourable hero of Scotland. However, Macbeth's character changes gradually during the play. A powerful ambition for power causes him to make sinister decisions that bring him only despair, guilt and madness. One of these decisions is to kill his friend Banquo because the witches that appeared at the beginning of the story said in their prophesy: “Thou shalt get kings, tough thou be none” (I, iii, line 67). They mean to say that even though Banquo will not be a king himself, he will be the father of future kings. By taking this into account, I am going to analyse how Banquo serves as a foil to Macbeth in terms of honour. Foil, in literature, is a character that is compared or contrasted to a second character so as to highlight the characteristics of the other. I consider honour in terms of loyalty, allegiance to moral principles and the ability of knowing and doing what is morally right. I am going to explore this hypothesis by taking account of the beginning of the play up to Banquo’s death, in Act III, scene iii.
Macbeth is the epitome of the Prince described by Maquiavelli who takes it for granted that man is incapable of good action, since he is morally evil. Maquiavelli stated that: “[...] all men are bad and ever...

...The tragedy Macbeth written by Shakespeare shows a man fall from the greatest pedestal, kingship. It is one of the greatest tragedies because it demonstrates how a once loyal and courageous man can diminish into an immoral 'butcher'. Macbeth receives a prophecy from three witches' stating that he would become King. This prophecy enkindled Macbeth's 'vaulting ambition' and after the prompting of Lady Macbeth, Macbeth commits regicide. Killing the King is the beginning of Macbeth's tragic fall. After Macbeth rises to kingship he begins to behave like a tyrant because he becomes obsessed with his elevated position. He becomes paranoid about Banquo's prophecy so he kills Banquo and tries to kill his son. He commits evil after evil, killing anyone who threatens his reign. Macbeth's monstrous behaviour ends with his death and the restoration of Duncan's royal line. In Macbeth there are many tragic events that are caused because of the involvement of the witches, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. These tragic events led to the demise of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth.
The witches are the first to appear in Macbeth and this signifies their importance in the tragic events of the play. Their first appearance straight away categorises the witches as evil as their riddles show that they want to stir up trouble. 'Fair is foul, and foul is fair'...